The management of cultural heritage in Italy needs to be improved so that it attracts more tourists and provide more revenue. This is the main finding of a recent survey conducted by ISNART (National Institute for Tourism Surveys) among Italian tourism industry experts.
Almost 88% of the respondents (1800 people) pointed out the importance of improving the Italian cultural heritage. They believe that the cultural heritage should be managed as a resource that can create considerable revenue. Only 1% of Italians that participated in the survey does not agree with that. The data clearly show that tourism experts see it necessary to radically change the way the public administration has been managing Italian cultural heritage.
Half of the respondents (50%) proclaimed that the cultural heritage of the country is one of the most valuable strengths of the industry. Almost one third (30%) said that the simplest thing to do is to cooperate closely with other countries, where cultural heritage became an important economic source. Moreover, 20% of the respondents believe that Italy afford anymore to keep these treasures unused.
More than 40% of the tourism experts declared that the main point is to improve the public management of the heritage sites, while 26.6% suggested supporting public/private collaboration to realize new projects. The aim is not a mere privatization of the cultural heritage but rather an improvement in terms of efficiency of the public administration that should also induce more private companies to become interested in investments in Italian culture.